Netflix has begun testing a revised TV app that moves the main navigation from the top of the screen back to a left-hand rail. It is the most direct interface walk-back since the streamer’s first major TV redesign in over a decade, and the test starts today.
The headline change is the menu, which sits as a slim rail of icons on the left and expands into a full panel on focus. That panel carries profile and Switch Profile options up top, followed by Search, Home, Shows, Movies, Games and My Netflix. Netflix could expand these options over time.
The more consequential change is where video plays. Netflix still plays video for the title you land on, but it no longer sits inside the title tile. It runs much larger near the top of the screen, with the title’s logo, genre, season count, maturity rating and synopsis laid over it.
Removing video from the tile frees space below. Rows show six tiles at once, with labels such as New Season and #1 in Shows carried over. Netflix also keeps its special modules: top 10 collections and seasonal rows like the Halloween Netflix and Chills shelf.
A walk-back, not a full retreat
This matters because the current interface was positioned as Netflix’s biggest TV update in a decade. The company began testing the top-bar design in June 2024, unveiled it officially in May 2025 and started a global rollout on May 19. That change removed the left menu in favour of a top bar, replaced static tiles with expanding boxes, and cut main-menu categories and New & Popular. Early criticism centred on fewer visible titles. Netflix said members preferred the bigger boxes, but discoverability clearly became a live question.
The new test is not a wholesale return to the pre-2024 app. Rounded tiles, adaptive background colours and the My Netflix hub remain. The layout is closer to an XMB-style rail, a cross media bar navigation popularised by Sony, that follows the viewer and makes it easier to jump back to the main menu.
What the test signals for the business
For streaming marketers and media planners, the test is a discoverability play. More tiles per row create more shelf space to surface catalogue, new releases and personalised rows on a single screen. That can boost impressions for titles that would otherwise sit below the fold.
It is also a reminder that interface layout shapes behaviour before a user starts a show: a simpler rail can shorten navigation time, while larger promotional video gives premieres a more cinematic sell.
Netflix is not treating this as a one-off. The current design took about 11 months from first test to global rollout, and the company has separate tests running, including a redesigned TV video player in July and a desktop website refresh in June that has mostly gone global.
- The menu moves from top to left in a slim rail that expands on focus.
- Video leaves the tile and plays larger near the top, freeing row space.
- Rows fit six tiles at once, with labels such as New Season and #1 in Shows.
- The change is a test, not a confirmed rollout; the last redesign took roughly 11 months to go global.
How to read it
The practical lesson for platform teams: treat a UX walk-back as a hypothesis, not an apology. Netflix is testing the left rail and larger video rather than announcing a permanent reversal. That lets it gather navigation and viewing data before committing. The same logic applies to any product or marketing leader deciding whether to defend a design launch or adapt on evidence.
For now, the test does not guarantee broader availability, and the final form may change. What it does confirm is that Netflix is willing to revisit the parts of its TV interface that users found hardest to scan.
Source: What’s on Netflix
